O blessed glorious Trinity,
Bones to Philosophy, but milk to faith,
Which, as wise serpents diversly
Most slipperiness, yet most entanglings hath,
As you distinguished undistinct
By power, love, knowledge be,
Give me a such self different instinct
Of these; let all me elemented be,
Of power, to love, to know, you unnumbered three.
John Donne

Trinity Sunday

Sunday May 18th is Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost. It is the last big hurrah, or feast day, until All Saints Day on November first. After Trinity Sunday, we begin the long green season of Pentecost – at its longest this year, since Easter was very early.

Trinity Sunday is one of those feast days that preachers often groan about: how does one make the concept of the Trinity, God as One, and yet as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, into a message that both makes sense and touches people where they are as they sit in Sunday’s pew?

For the theological underpinnings of the doctrine of the Trinity are not easy to understand, and much of it hinges on a Greek word which means, basically, same substance: that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are same substance, yet separate. Huh? And yet, this seemingly confusing doctrine is the foundation of our faith as Christians: That God, known as Father, sent Son, Jesus to be for us a sacrifice for sin; and that they together sent the Holy Spirit, the guide and comforter, the Spirit who poured over creation, the very breath of God. Separate, equal, yet of one essence.

There is a physics experiment that can be done in which ice, steam, and liquid all appear at the same time. Perhaps that’s the best our finite minds can do in thinking of how the trinity exists – all three at the same time, all the same essence, as ice steam and water are, all in unity.

Celtic spirituality speaks of the Trinity as the "threeness of the oneness." To me this brings out the fact that Trinity is mystery, just as Eucharist is. We can’t explain how the bread and wine become for us the body and blood of Christ; neither can we explain how the Trinity dwells in Unity as One God. But we can understand that the threeness speaks of community; that threeness can symbolize for us the need, and desire, within each of us to be unified with God, and that God, in trinity, invites us in to join the great dance of God’s great love which cannot be contained in One person.

Collect for Trinity Sunday:
Almighty and everlasting God,
You have given to us your servants grace,
By the confession of a true faith,
To acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity,
And in the power of your divine Majesty
To worship the Unity:
Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship,
And bring us at last to see you
In your one and eternal glory, O Father;
Who with the Son and Holy Spirit live and reign,
One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Crowned With Glory
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor."
Psalm 8

In the Friday morning class entitled Theology and Spirit, we have begun to read a wonderful book on Celtic Spirituality called Listening for the Heartbeat of God.

We are exploring what it means to be made in the image of God.
We are asking ourselves questions about good and evil, humanity and divinity.

When God breathed life into us, God left within us an imprint of the goodness of creation.

"And God saw that it was good!"

As we move through life we spend a good deal of time covering over that image with other pictures.
We obscure our original nature with the dust of confusion, addiction, desire and pride.

And yet, according to the Psalmist-
We are crowned with glory.

And what is this glory that God has bestowed upon human beings?
Glory, as understood by both Greek and Hebrew, connotes a heaviness that we carry with us—like the heaviness of gold.

We have weight within the creation, and that weight brings with it the presence of God.
Truly, this is the kind of glory that we are seeking to recover when we come to our prayer and worship.
We are not becoming something new-no, we are becoming what we already are. We are moving toward our true selves-uncovering the beauty of that which God breathed into us in Creation.

Like sculptors, we are whittling away everything that isn’t of God, so that we will end up revealing what is God within us.

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

Michelangelo (Italian sculptor, painter, architect & poet, considered the creator of the Renaissance, 1475-1564)

We are the angel that God is longing to set free.

Blessings,
Debra

Daily Morning Prayer:
http://www.episcopalchurchingarrettcounty.org/churchonthewebpage.htm

Prayer

Master, they say that when I seem
To be in speech with you,
Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream
- one talker aping two.

They are half right, but not as they
Imagine; rather, I
Seek in myself the things I meant to say,
And lo! The wells are dry.

Then, seeing me empty, you forsake
The Listener’s role, and through
My dead lips breathe and into utterance wake
The thoughts I never knew.

And thus you neither need reply
Nor ca; thus, while we seem
Two talking, thou art One forever, and I
No dreamer, but thy dream.
--Clive Staples Lewis--

This Week at St. James:

Thursday: Newsletter Deadline
Friday: 10:00 Theology and Spirit
Sunday: Last Sunday School until Fall; Last Worship 9 until Fall
Monday: 10:00 CS Lewis Book Study’s English Tea; 7:00 Contemplative Prayer
Wednesday: 8:30 Healing Eucharist; 9:30 Bible Study

Prayers Etc.

For the victims of the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China.

For those on our Prayer List:
David; Arabella; Brittany; Owen; Jennifer D.; Rob C.
Andrew; Jason; Donna & Jim; Larry; Betsy
Mimi & Poppa B.; Mary S.; Todd; Vicky T.; Ray W.

For those who are deployed and their families.
For Laura and Lyle.

In Closing:

Father of heaven, whose love profound
A ransom for our souls hath found,
Before Thy throne we sinners bend:
To us Thy pardoning love extend.
Almighty Son, incarnate Word,
Our Prophet, Priest, Redeemer, Lord,
Before Thy throne we sinners bend:
To us Thy saving grace extend.
Eternal Spirit, by whose breath
The soul is raised from sin and death,
Before Thy throne we sinners bend:
To us Thy quickening power extend.
Jehovah,--Father, Spirit, Son,--
Mysterious Godhead, Three in One,
Before Thy throne we sinners bend:
Grace, pardon, life, to us extend.
---Edward Cooper---

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

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